Going cuckoo

With every trip to the dentist back in the day, your folks would’ve had some choice words for Sonny the Cuckoo bird. Those Cocoa Puffs were ruining your teeth, but how could a kid not go cuckoo with all their wacky ads?

Aside from Cocoa Puffs, you probably can’t hear the word cuckoo without picturing a vintage clock. That could all change thanks to the team at Woodmess—their beautiful designs and handiwork are bringing cuckoo clocks into the 21st century.

Now those are clocks from the heart ;)

(Love nostalgia? Play today’s trivia below for a chance to win a $25 Amazon eGift Card!)

It may not have a climate suitable for building generational wealth from winemaking, but there are darers and dreamers in Ireland who’ve decided to make a living off of it thanks to climate change.

The average temperature in Ireland has risen 0.7 degrees Celsius over the last three decades, cutting the likelihood of late-season frosts and expanding the growing season by an average of between seven and 16 days, according to Paul Moore, a climatologist who works for the Irish meteorological service.

One man enjoying the fruits of his winemaking labor is David Llewellyn, who grows grapes on a fruit farm in Lusk, about 30 minutes north of Dublin.

“In my experience of 30 to 40 years of growing grapes in Ireland, there are only a handful that have proven themselves,” Llewellyn said. “We kind of stumbled along, making lots of terrible mistakes, innocently planting the wrong varieties that wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of ripening in Ireland. Even experts in France have no idea how marginal the Irish climate is.”

Today, Llewellyn continues to net good returns on his cider and vinegar business, but also now makes and sells around 150 cases of his Lusca sparkling rosé and red wine each year.

A new study published in the journal Nature Aging found 13 proteins are specifically linked to the brain aging process, though it’s unclear what practical applications the findings may have.

The researchers analyzed blood samples from 11,000 study participants aged between 45 and 82, and discovered 3,000 different proteins in 5,000 of the blood samples determined to be directly linked to the brain aging process.

Specifically, they found 13 proteins peaked in the bloodstream at an average age of 57, 70, and 78, suggesting the brain goes through transformative aging milestones at each of these chronological ages.

Some experts have said the identification of these proteins will help guide future research when it comes to treatment of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. However, just how these discoveries could be translated into future treatment applications wasn’t clear in the study.

"The correlation between several proteins in blood samples and an MRI image-based indicator of brain aging are interesting," said Mark Mattson, an adjunct professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "However, the implications for using measurements of blood levels of those proteins to diagnose brain dysfunction or for developing specific interventions are unclear."

Unearthed in an excellently preserved condition, a dinosaur skull belonging to a previously undiscovered species was recently found in the Yunnan Province of southern China.

Named Lishulong wangi, it’s reportedly an ancestor of the sauropods, and is believed to have been roughly 33 feet long, significantly taller than the T-rex, and more akin to other sauropodomorphs like the Brontosaurus.

The study that led to the discovery was led by paleontologists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The fossil belongs to a dinosaur that roamed the earth during the Early Jurassic Period of around 200 million years ago. It, along with a cervical vertebrae, are the only pieces of the skeleton retrieved so far, leading the study’s researchers to have to construct the remainder of the body based on hypotheses rather than actual evidence of what the creature looked like.

“This new taxon is represented by a partial skeleton including the skull and nine articulated cervical vertebrae, which differs from other Lufeng forms in both cranial and cervical characteristics,” the researchers wrote.

Bob Dylan was just 22 years old when he threw out the early draft of the lyrics for a new song before falling asleep on his friend’s couch in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey. That friend was music journalist Al Aronowitz and the song was Mr. Tambourine Man.

The lyrics were written on a typewriter, and the slightly torn and stained paper was crumpled up when Aronowitz rescued it from his trash bin. He held onto the lyrics until his death in 2005, at which point they were inherited by his kids.

“My father never threw anything away, and we knew the story of Mr Tambourine Man…but he had lost track of it,” said Myles Aronowitz, who discovered the lyrics last year after looking through 250 boxes of his father’s belongs. He had spent three years in search of the obviously one-of-a-kind treasure buried in a plethora of papers, tapes, and photographs. “It meant a lot to him, but he didn’t know where it was.”

Dylan wrote at least three drafts for what would become one of the most iconic songs in the history of rock ‘n roll music. The drafts reveal he substituted words like “bootheels” for “feet” and “magic” for “priceless.” The word “to” was often abbreviated to “t” as if Dylan was in a rush while his muse possessed him.

The drafts will be auctioned off by Julien’s Auctions on Saturday, and are expected to fetch around half a million dollars.

Rad, bodacious, totally tubular—however you want to describe it, the ’80s were an eventful decade.

You #CameOfAgeInthe80s, so you’d know best. Or do you? Find out with today’s trivia, and earn a chance to win a $25 Amazon eGift Card while you’re at it ;)

Winner will be notified tomorrow afternoon. Keep an eye on your inbox!*

Have a great day ahead Staker!

Today’s issue written by Michael Cowan, Joey Cowan, and Maureen Norman.


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